


How Loch-y You Are

by 5-5-k (Vsquaredk)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Gen, Lady of the Lake!AU, More tags to be added I'm sure, Other Characters Are Mentioned, as of now it's a Lena-centric fic, if this continues it will be Supercorp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 21:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20316121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vsquaredk/pseuds/5-5-k
Summary: The opaque, gray mist gathered above the dark waters, swirling, soft and ethereal, obscuring the opposite shore. Above the softly tittering birds in the treetops, the splash of feeding waterfowl, and the gentle waves lapping at the shoreline, the odd snap of a broken twig in the leafy underbrush could be heard as Lena moved softly through. Her heartbeat quickened as she stooped to avoid a low-hanging branch heavy with red berries. She stopped suddenly, just at the edge of the rocky shore, and stared, shivering in the early-morning chill of late autumn.It had been 25 years since she'd been back.-----In the aftermath of the Season 4 reveal, Lena goes back to the place her story really began.Aka the Lady of the Lake!AU





	How Loch-y You Are

**Author's Note:**

> So I suck at updating? And I have never actually even watched Supergirl? But tumblr and twitter and friends and fic (so much fic) have dragged me kicking and screaming back into fandom creation.
> 
> No outlines, no beta.
> 
> I've also never been to Ireland, and know very little about the particulars of Irish/Anglo-saxon mythos, so apologies to Celtic/English mythology if I'm bastardizing it.
> 
> I have no idea what I'm doing here.

_How many years_  
_I know I'll bare_  
_I found something_  
_In the woods somewhere_

\- Hozier, "In the Woods Somewhere"

* * *

The opaque, gray mist gathered above the dark waters, swirling, soft and ethereal, obscuring the opposite shore. Above the softly tittering birds in the treetops, the splash of feeding waterfowl, and the gentle waves lapping at the shoreline, the odd snap of a broken twig in the leafy underbrush could be heard as Lena moved softly through. Her heartbeat quickened as she stooped to avoid a low-hanging branch heavy with red berries. She stopped suddenly, just at the edge of the rocky shore, and stared, shivering in the early-morning chill of late autumn.

The remote southerly shore of Glendalough’s Upper Lake, in all its picturesque beauty, seemed completely untouched by time; even the swirl of the mist in the glow of the twilight was painfully nostalgic.

It had been 25 years since she'd been back.

Lena heaved a deep sigh as she sat on a familiar moss-covered boulder several steps from the edge of the water, dropping her pack on the tall grass nearby. The shallows below, mere feet from her boots, rippled out slightly in response, moving with a breeze that suddenly swept from the mountainside somewhere behind her.

Lena didn't know why she was there, the same inhospitable shore that had her frozen so many years ago. When her mother had…

Well, she had some idea. Her brothe- Lex had died by her hand; the love of h- her best frie- Kara had lied to her for years; her adoptive mother was on the lam. That blasted sentimentality that Lena had never been able to fully shake had pulled her on a pilgrimage, of sorts, across the Atlantic. She just knew she needed to talk to someone who loved her, even if her mom wasn't, well, here anymore.

Memories rose to the forefront of her mind, unbidden. The smell of musty books, and the official-looking papers Lena had uncovered, after Lionel had passed, in a hidden compartment in his desk. The warm glow of the lamps in her father’s study that had done nothing to warm the chill of Lillian’s snappy words when Lena had showed them to her. Lex had said nothing, then. 

_(Apparently they had never found her mom's body._

_Young Lena had held onto the bittersweet daydreams she had after that. Her mom, still alive, still beautiful. Maybe the Luthors had hidden Lena from her mom. Maybe her mom was just too disgusted by Lena to come find her again. Maybe her mom was searching for Lena, desperately, but it was Lena that didn't want to be found. Maybe, if she worked hard enough, made a big enough name for herself, her mom would be proud enough of her to come and find her again._

_It had been a long time since she lost herself to her daydreams like she used to.)_

The slap of a sudden swell upon the large rocks sitting beyond the lake’s edge shook Lena from her nostalgia. "Hi mom," she smirked self deprecatingly. "Sorry I haven't been by for so long."

The muffled sounds of the near-ripples of water lapping at the shore were the only response to her greeting.

"The shit really hit the fan, and I just needed someone in my corner for a bit." She took a shaky breath. Her eyes, unfocused and glistening with unshed tears, turned to the never-ending thick fog that seemed to mirror the storminess within her. “Someone who is definitely in my corner, anyway.” The creaking boughs behind her filled the silence as Lena fought against the heavy lump in her throat and collected her thoughts.

“You’ve missed so much; I don’t even know what to tell you about what’s been going on in my life. I… I… all I ever hoped was that you would be proud of the life I built for myself, despite everything… I’m a- a CEO, now. Of Lionel’s company, and I…” She closed her eyes, swallowing the frustration churning in her gut, and trying in vain to collect enough of it to push into a box. Lena wasn’t sure how to tell a dead person anything, but if any of the plethora of movies she’d seen told her anything, she was just supposed to talk… or something. Those damn movies that she’d watched with Ka-

She shook her head slightly before her thoughts ran away from her (again). This was stupid; she was literally talking to a fucking lake. But, ironically, she couldn’t drown her damned sentimental side. Lillian would be so disappointed. (Fuck Lillian, though, honestly.) She scowled, glaring at her surroundings, a bitter taste in her mouth. “Objectively, I know you’re not here. I know that talking to… well, the lake like this is… behaviour that borders on neurotic. And I know that, logically, I should probably find a professional to parse through everything that happened recently instead of talking to the air, but I needed my m-“

Lena choked on the last word as her cheeks burned with shame. She could almost hear Lillian’s mocking tone. _“You’re weak. Luthors don’t need anybody, and here you are, pathetic and needy. First that Kryptonian filth, and now your poor dead mothe-”_ (Fuck you, Lillian, fuck you fuckyou _fuckyou**fuckyoufu**_-)

“You left me.” Lena’s bitterly hissed admission came with a sudden flood of burning tears. “I needed my mom, growing up, and you left me. I still need you! And you went and- How could you leave me alone like that?” A chest-wracking sob burst from her lips as she scrubbed at her eyes.

The muted ambiance of the picturesque shoreline seemed to mock her as she wept, the torrent of heavy emotions bursting from the boxes that she had curated and hidden in the recesses of her mind. The birds in the trees behind her taunted her as she finally found herself losing control.

There, on the shore where Lena had watched her mother drown, surrounded by the ghosts of regret, broken dreams and the remnants of her boxes, her rational self knew only one thing.

She never should have come back.

* * *

The sun could be seen high above the trees, peeking through the thick fog, when Lena was able to breathe without slipping into another round of tears. She took a final shuddering breath before letting her eyes, still swollen from the tears, search for her pack.

…

Something was off.

Something was _very_ off.

…

Lena furrowed her brow as she slowly turned around, cataloging the environment around her, as she often did whenever her intuition told her something was wrong.

The forest and all its creatures were still; despite the hour and the strength of the barely-visible sun, the fog was still as thick as unspun wool; the… forest floor had… blossomed delicate blue and white flowers?

_…What?!_

But it was… October? Or, well, November, now that the sun had risen. If she remembered correctly, the bluebells weren’t supposed to be blossoming for another half a year. 

She rubbed at her eyes, trying to remove the last vestiges of the blurriness from her eyes…

_Were they **glowing** now?! What the **fu**-_

“Hello, _a leanbh_, I’ve missed you.” Lena froze as a warm, silky voice drifted from behind her. That sounded like- but that was impossible! In the quiet pause, Lena swore she heard the bluebells tinkle softly.

“You’ve certainly grown, _a leanbh_."

Lena felt her traitorous, thundering heart wrench with the familiarity of the voice behind her. She forced a swallow around the ball of confusion that had lodged itself in her throat. “Lena, won’t you turn and say hello to your poor mother?”

**Author's Note:**

> _**a leanbh** (pronounced either "len-ev" or "len-ah")_ = my child
> 
> If you want more or you want to yell at me, feel free to comment, kudos, send me an ask on tumblr (same username) or hit me up on Twitter (@v2k1k1; feel free to request!)
> 
> (This may not update for a while, due to the fact that I know I'll have an incredibly busy semester coming up. This AU will also need significant world-building/plotting before I can really start pushing forward. Forgive me?)


End file.
